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Building my new PC - help needed!

Hello,

I've assembled the parts I need to build a new PC, but I hit an unexpected road block today that I'm trying to figure out before I can move on.

I have an ATX motherboard, and my case is the Corsair 550D. Now, Corsair was kind enough to pre-install the standoffs that the motherboard rests on/is screwed into. That's all well and good, but here's the problem: Six of the standoffs look exactly as one would expect, but take a look at the other three (at the top of the picture); they look like little mole hills to me:

What I'm trying to figure out before I move forward with the installation is: Is it safe to screw the motherboard to those three "mole hills" that I believe are meant to be the other 3 (of the total 9) standoffs? The way they look, I was concerned of a possible short circuit because you don't really want any of the motherboard touching the case directly, and that seems to be pushing it pretty close to me. What do you think? Safe?

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Well, in the meantime I found a forum for PCs with a thread dedicated to owners of the 550D, and two guys have already assured me it's safe.

Which forum?

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
Want your own "Just Say No to Kamen" from @mkroeger pic? http://twitpic.com/a3hmca

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Well, I put it all together, finished that about an hour ago, and now I'm still in trouble.

I can't get Windows 8 to install. I boot to the optical drive, with the installation DVD in of course, and after a black screen with a sky blue windows logo for a bit, i get what appears to be the newest version of BSOD.

"Recovery

Your PC needs to be repaired

A requested device isn't connected or can't be accessed

Error code: 0xc0000185

You'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your system administrator or PC manufacturer."

Help??

Here's what else I know that may or may not matter here:

All of my ram is detected, but it's listed at 1333 when it is actually 1600.

My optical drive obviously seems to have power and have SATA connection, yet in UEFI/BIOS, it seemed to only try to boot from DVD not when I made the OD first priority, but when I made a separate choice, which was the OD apparently by some means of the UEFI.

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Okay, forum is good.

Regarding your Windows install problem, check your data and power connections to your optical drive and hard drive. If you can, try a different hard drive. Also test with different SATA cables if needed.

Finally, get to Windows 7. I can't stand that **** with 8 dumping the start menu. SO CLUNKY.

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
Want your own "Just Say No to Kamen" from @mkroeger pic? http://twitpic.com/a3hmca

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Regarding the RAM issue, what is the make/model of the board and make/model on the RAM?

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
Want your own "Just Say No to Kamen" from @mkroeger pic? http://twitpic.com/a3hmca

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

I am no computer expert by any means, I have just enough knowledge to get myself in trouble and perform minor connections.

First off, installing your OS to a SSD is a great move, boots so quick.

I agree with Sandman that I prefer 7 to 8. I don't know what could be causing your problem though, a driver issue? Something that is loose? I guess just double check your steps would be my best advice.

Let us know it turns out! Building a good gaming rig is such a nice thing, really I find myself messing with my TV and Xbox less and less now that I really have a good system.

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Okay, your RAM issue can be resolved with a BIOS adjustment, but don't mess with it until you get everything sorted. Looks like this is fairly common for the Corsair Vengeance RAM, this was the first result that I found on Google:http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/31...unning-1333mhz

Whats the make/model on the PSU? It could be partially at fault. Have you tried another optical drive and an inspection of your installation media?

"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
Want your own "Just Say No to Kamen" from @mkroeger pic? http://twitpic.com/a3hmca

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

Grr!!

My graphics card is now stuck halfway in/out of the PCI-e slot!

Why? Because the SATA cable plugs into the motherboard directly underneath it, and I can't unclip it unless the GPU is removed.

I unscrewed the GPU, started to remove it, couldn't because of the plastic PCIe clip that keeps it half locked for some god damned reason, and now I can't seem to release the PCI clip OR push the other half back into the slot. Tips/suggestions????

Re: Building my new PC - help needed!

The thing that makes my current spot doubly frustrating is that I think I had just identified the problem from before: I had already connected a third SATA cable that I will need for when my hard disk drive arrives next week for more data storage. It was connected to the motherboard but obviously there was nothing connected to the other end of the cable. My hunch is/was that if I were to unplug that cable from the motherboard, the windows installer would quit thinking there was something wrong.

But now I can't know that until I fix this ****ing graphics card problem.